Investigating the Opinions of Teachers on the Processes of Vocational Counselling, Training and Employment of Special Needs Students

Abstract

The statistics of the Ministry of National Education (MEB) show that the number of students who are pursuing their education in general education environments in scope of inclusion programs is increasing every year. It is observed that the number of special needs students who continue their secondary education after primary education is increasing with the regulation that makes it mandatory to have 12 years of education. While directing special needs (SN) students towards secondary education, families and experts prefer vocational high schools where these students can learn functional skills. This is why the opinions of teachers who work at vocational high schools are important. The purpose of this study is to investigate the opinions of technical teachers working at vocational high schools, school counsellors, culture course teachers and special education teachers providing support education to students on the processes of vocational counselling, training and employment of special needs students. Towards this purpose, semi-structured interviews were held with a total of 59 teachers using a form prepared by the researchers. The findings indicated that the opinions of technical teachers at vocational high schools on inclusion and continuation of SN students in vocational high schools were more negative in comparison to those of culture course teachers and school counsellors, and there were significant shortcomings in the professional training of SN students. It was also seen that special needs teachers were not sufficiently informed about the job prospects and employment of SN students, and they used limited opportunities for their students.